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| Front page 1... Living With Uncertainty 2... The Championship Team: AACF 3... The In's and Out's of Telecommuting 4... Profile of Harvest Community Church |
The In's and Out's of Telecommuting By Pam Noritake as told to Karen Mashita  "How
far do you travel to get to the office?" people sometimes ask me. "Oh,
just a hop, skip and jump," I say, "out of my bedroom, down the stairs,
and across the. . . living room!" That's
right. It's noooo more dealing with rush hour traffic for me. As you may have guessed,
nowadays along with a growing number of you out there in corporate America, I work
out of my home, or rather I "telecommute to work from my virtual office."
As
you may know, the terms "telecommuting" and the "virtual office"
are more than household words in our marketplace. Simply put, telecommuting is moving
the work instead of the workers to work.  Computers, cellular phones, fax machines, and
advanced communications links such as ISDN and dial-up access have removed the physical
barriers that once required workers to be in their office. The "virtual office"
is where the telecommuting takes place, primarily in your home. Avoiding
long commutes is just one reason people make the switch to telecommuting. Some work
out of their homes to be more accessible for their young children. Others favor the
flexibility telecommuting offers. Whatever the reason people opt to work at home,
telecommuting is on the rise and becoming more acceptable and feasible in the marketplace
given today's technology. For
a little over a year and a half, I've been working as an account executive for AT&T.
An account executive is responsible for making client contacts, researching and creating
proposals, participating in nationwide teleconference training, and generally keeping
in touch with my boss, among other things. I have basically been using a corner of
my living room as an office. My workspace consists of a desk equipped with a laptop
computer with modem, a fax machine, a two-line business phone, a pager, and a cellular
phone. Throw in a file cabinet and a comfortable chair and you have the virtual makings
of a cubicle similar to yours. One
of the biggest challenges of telecommuting is being disciplined to get work (office
work) done. When I first started working at home, I would get distracted by my personal
"to do" list. But I soon realized that God provided me with this job, and
I needed to give it my best. For example, it may seem obvious, but as a telecommuter
sometimes you need to remind yourself to put in a full eight-hour day. Those times
when I feel like goofing-off, I really need to pray "Lord, please motivate me."
Spending time with the Lord each morning is a necessity, especially since I am juggling
so many priorities. The discipline didn't come overnight, however; it took me six
months to adjust to working at home and I'm still adapting.Telecommuting
also means changes in working relationships. There really isn't a sense of office
camaraderie. I'm part of a team of 12 account executives who, like me, work out of
their homes. We have a sales manager based in a satellite office (a remote office
our team uses instead of having to go to the main office). Our team gets together
for meetings every couple of weeks, and attends training sessions at the main corporate
office, but otherwise we have little contact with each other. I can go for days without
talking with my "co-workers" or with my boss.I
think there are both pro's and con's to working at home. Unlike the traditional office
environment, there isn't anyone to spontaneously brainstorm with or consult. When
it comes to learning something new, e-mail is the closest I come to receiving guidance
from the next cubicle. On the flip side, there aren't any worries about getting along
with everyone in the office because there is no one else in the virtual office. Having
a home office also avoids having to deal with company politics and gossip.Balancing
my home office with my personal relationships has mostly been positive. For example,
my roommates understand that home is my office between the hours of 8 a.m. and 5
p.m. If they have a day off and want to watch television and hang out in the living
room, my work will usually take priority, but I'm flexible. If I'm working after
hours, we agree that the living room is now the living room.In
many ways, working at home has made my personal life easier. Being involved with
my church's youth ministry, I sometimes like to spend time with the kids outside
of church. If they are on vacation or break, I can work a half-day and hang out with
them, then make-up the rest of my workday on a weekend or whenever I have time. I
can even schedule doctors' appointments at my convenience. Telecommuting
also makes it possible to work on my graduate school projects during the day, while
rescheduling those "missed" work hours at times more suitable. Dinner is
ready at 6 p.m. instead of 8 p.m. because I don't have to fight traffic. In fact,
if I ever wake up late and need to be "in the office" at 8 a.m., I can
just roll out of bed and go downstairs to the living room. No one will know that
I haven't showered yet or that I'm making calls dressed in my pajamas!One
pitfall I've encountered is overtime. Like your job, overtime is sometimes necessary.
People often bring their work home with them. But I sometimes find myself doing the
same thing - working after hours when the work can wait until tomorrow. (This is
really easy to do when working at home believe it or not). Since my office is accessible
all the time, it's easy for me to work too much. My friends sometimes have to remind
me to stop working.Working
out of the home isn't for everyone, but it suits me. Telecommuting requires self-motivation
because no one is around to provide motivation. I think a virtual office is for those
who can establish their own structure and practice a good work ethic. It is running
your own company while working as part of that company. . . only without the bumper
to bumper.(Both Pam [Lee] Noritake and Karen [Wong] Mashita are alumni from Cal Poly Pomona and were on core with AACF. Pam attends Evergreen Baptist Church. Karen is married to Rev. Daryl Mashita of Orange County Christian Church and is a full-time mom and freelance graphic designer.) Front Page 1...Living With Uncertainty 2...The Championship Team: AACF 3...The In's and Out's of Telecommuting 4...Profile of Harvest Community Church
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